TERM: Fall 2007-2008

COURSE #:  MEc 441

SECTION: 71

COURSE NAME: Industrial Structure and Competitive Strategy

INSTRUCTOR:  Mark Satterthwaite

CASEPACK - YES or NO?:  Yes

FIRST ASSIGNMENT for session 1 and 2 during the first week::

Session 1’s required reading:

1.  Course syllabus. 

2.  Case:  Nintendo Co., Inc.   .  Be prepared to discuss two questions:

·         How did Nintendo keep the price of software for the NES at a relatively high level?  Why did it do so?

·         Why did Nintendo delay introduction of its 16-bit system, the Super NES, for almost two years after Sega introduced its system.

3.  Satterthwaite, M. 1997.  An abbreviated history of Atari and the video game industry in the early 1980s.  August.   

4.  Katz, Michael L., and Carl Shapiro, 1994, Systems Competition and Network Effects, Journal of Economic Perspectives 8, 93-115. 

5. Scott-Morton (1999), Why economics has been fruitful for strategy. 

Session 2’s required reading:

1.  Bose, P.  1992.  Commitment: An interview with Pankaj Ghemawat.  McKinsey Quarterly 3: 121-37.

2.  Al-Najjar, N.I.  1999. Notes on strategic interaction and oligopoly. Kellogg School of Management

Session 2’s required written exercise that is to be turned in during class:

 Commitment and Entry.  It is posted on my “course page” and will be posted on the course’s Blackboard site.

By mid-September all materials for week one from the case packet will be on my “course page”  at: 

          http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/satterthwaite/htm/coursepg.htm

The Blackboard site will also be active by then.

.

IS ATTENDANCE AT FIRST CLASS MANDATORY – YES OR NO?: No

1.  TEXT - REQUIRED or RECOMMENDED?: None

AUTHOR:

PUBLISHER:

TITLE:

ED./DATE:

2.  TEXT - REQUIRED or RECOMMENDED?:

AUTHOR:

PUBLISHER:

TITLE:

ED./DATE:

TERM:

Fall 2007-08

COURSE #:

MECN-430

SECTION:

71

COURSE NAME:

Microeconomic Analysis

INSTRUCTOR:

                   Eyal Beigman

CASEPACK - YES or NO?: Yes

FIRST ASSIGNMENT:

¨      Required reading:

1.      Besanko and Braeutigam, Microeconomics, Chapter 2, Section 2.1.

2.      Case: Capacity expansion in the Global Aluminum Industry, 2006

3.      Note on the Microeconomics of Cost

4.      Besanko and Braeutigam, Mathematical Appendix, Sections A1–A5

¨      Optional reading:

1.       “Oil that Glisters,”

2.      “Of Mice and Economics”

¨       Please give the Exercise a try: “Constructing the Short-Run Supply Curve for Primary Aluminum in 2004.”

IS ATTENDANCE AT FIRST CLASS MANDATORY – YES OR NO?: No

1.  TEXT - REQUIRED or RECOMMENDED?: Strongly recommended

AUTHOR:

Besanko, D., and R. Braeutigam

PUBLISHER:

John Wiley & Sons

TITLE:

Microeconomics: An Integrated Approach

ED./DATE:

2nd Edition / 2005

TERM: fall ‘07

COURSE #: MECN 446

SECTION: 61 & 71

COURSE NAME:  pricing strategies

INSTRUCTOR: Rakesh Vohra

CASEPACK - YES or NO?: YES

FIRST ASSIGNMENT:  NONE

IS ATTENDANCE AT FIRST CLASS MANDATORY – YES OR NO?: YES

1.        TEXT - RECOMMENDED

AUTHOR: Thomas Nagle and John Hogan

PUBLISHER: Pearson/Prentice Hall

TITLE: Strategy and Tactics of Pricing

ED./DATE: 4th

2.  TEXT - REQUIRED or RECOMMENDED?:

AUTHOR:

PUBLISHER:

TITLE:

ED./DATE: